Is This the Next Mobile Phone Movement?

Trends are born. They grow and mature. Eventually, they reach old age and die.

My research leads me to conclude we’re on the cusp of a “clean phone” trend.

This is when you want to catch a trend for the chance at the largest wealth — right at the start.

As you’ll see, this emerging trend is similar to the “clean food” trend that helped Whole Foods grow into a $10.6 billion company.

The foundations of these two trends are also similar. Consumers knew chemically treated food was bad. They demanded clean food.

Today, emerging research suggests cellphone use could be detrimental to your health. As the research compounds, consumers will demand clean phones too.

Today, what I call “clean phone” tech is still in technology’s womb. Those who act on the firms giving birth to this multibillion-dollar market segment could make enormous market gains.

In trend forecasting, all things are connected. I call it Globalnomic. One trend impacts and feeds another, all the way around the world.

To understand the market dynamics and growth potential of “clean phones” is to recognize the connection to “clean foods,” a term I coined way back in 1993.

How the Rise of Clean Phone Tech Will Mirror “Clean Food”

For most millennials, it’s ancient history. But for baby boomers and Gen X, when you went to the supermarket in the 1980s, the array of fruits and vegetables was limited. With lettuce, it was iceberg. Romaine, red leaf, Boston… forget about it.

If you wanted variety and yearned for organic, the only place you’d find it in those pre-Trader Joe’s and pre-Whole Foods days was in small health-food stores in the low-rent section of town.

By the early 1990s, this began to change. The organic trend blossomed. Why?

Despite claims by chemical companies such as DuPont that “used correctly, there should be negligible risk to human beings… chemicals that fight weeds, fungus and pests provide a major benefit in producing abundant, affordable food supply,” a wide spectrum of an educated society began to make the connection.

That connection was simple. Eating foods laced and produced with multiple combinations of chemicals and pesticides posed high health risks.

Scientific evidence eventually confirmed the spectrum of ill effects of processed, chemically laden foods. Large-scale food producers could no longer deny the evidence. And as I predicted, a robust, growing countertrend parallel industry was born.

While still a minority of the total food market, the $43 billion organic/clean food sector has steadily grown. Many of the small startups back then are now owned by corporate giants who were losing market share due to pay-more-to-stay-healthy consumers.

“Clean Phones” Are Coming

Just as I predicted the birth of the clean-food movement, we predict the rise of “clean phones” for essentially the same reason: A large market sector is ready to put its money where its health is.

The world is wireless. And the smartphone and its comparable cousins are now the sources of numerous studies showing that radiation from the devices may be tied to brain cancer and other ailments. The health risk list keeps growing.

In fact, initial findings of a study released in May by the federal National Toxicology Program found that radiation from radio-frequency exposure caused tumors in lab rats.

Therefore, as evidence grows and public awareness regarding health risks of chronic cellphone use increases, particularly among children, the same market segment that pays for clean food will swiftly gravitate to “clean phones.”

Thus, safer cellphone devices that are effective and marketed with a “clean phone” theme and brand will corner a market with rich and growing potential.

I think $10 has been the trendy new “shocker” price for oil for the past 8 or 9 months now. But guess what? It ain’t happenin’ anytime soon. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t think crude’s shooting back toward $100 by the weekend—or even this time next year. But I do think oil’s been due for a classic oversold bounce for some time now.

The 3-D scanning market is bigger than most people think: Currently, it is a larger global market than 3-D printing alone and will continue to be well into the future. Industry analysts expect a 26.7% compound annual growth rate in 3-D scanning over the next five years.